Find out about your work of art

Welcome to the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute library!

We are one of a handful of major art libraries in the United States, with a collection of about 270,000 volumes that grows by four to five thousand volumes a year. Historically, the library's collection strengths are primarily in Western art from the Renaissance to the present. In addition, thanks to recent grants we also have substantial holdings in the contemporary art of Africa, Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe, and Australasia.

The library serves the Clark museum staff, the Williams/Clark Graduate Program in the History of Art, and Williams College students and faculty. We are also open to the public Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and reference and research help are available on those days.

In preparation for coming to the library to research your work of art, you may wish to

search the library catalog (see the box to the lower left)

identify any materials that may be in Offsite Storage. Email or call at least two days in advance to request these materials.

identify any materials that may be in special collections, such as Rare Books or Archives. Help and in some cases permission is needed to access these materials, so call or email well in advance.

From the library’s Electronic Resources page you may access the suite of electronic databases and selected websites that can be used to find books, journal articles, auction sales results, visual resources, and many other kinds of material. (Be advised that many databases are only available from the Clark and/or Williams campuses.) Be sure to check the “Additional Resources (by Subject)” page, which lists many more resources and includes websites that can be searched from home.